California · Nonprofit
ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION
ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION (California) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,715,971 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($6,750,200). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $178M
- Funders on record
- 46
- Grants received
- $33M
- Net assets
- $85M
What Rocketship Education does
Mission
Rocketship Education is a national non-profit network of public elementary charter schools serving low-income communities with limited access to excellent schools. Founded in 2006, Rocketship Education is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation whose mission is to eliminate the achievement gap in underserved communities across the country. The core of rocketship's instructional model is a teacher-led, technology supported approach to personalized learning that matches each student with the right content at the right time utilizing the right method of instruction. By deeply engaging parents in their student's learning and the school community, rocketship develops parents who become lifelong advocates for their children and their community. Working alongside parents, community organizations, districts, and other charter schools, rocketship is catalizing a movement to eliminate the achievement gap in our lifetime.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Program
Rocketship Education manages, operates, and promotes a network of public elementary charter schools serving approximately 10,000 students in high need communities. Rocketship Education directly operates schools in california and tennessee with approximately 7,600 students.
$149,056,290 spent$5,933,778 earned by the program100% of program spending
The program described on its FY2024 Form 990. Program spending in total: $149,056,290.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2022 to 2023, from $75M to $251M (+235%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 91% · 2018 88% · 2019 91% · 2020 90% · 2021 92% · 2022 91% · 2023 92% · 2024 90% · 2025 91%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
95% of ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION’s revenue is contributions — more reliant on donations than three-quarters of its peers (14% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 0 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Louis Jordan
Board president
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 14 funders to 16 funders, grant income fell $4.8M → $2.2M.
15 of 46 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 27% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
Left out of every figure on this page: $1.9M from one payer (the payer shares this organization's board, largest Launchpad Development Company). These are real filings, and they are not money ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION raised.
From the IRS filings of ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 46 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 21% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
83% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 41% · 2018 22% · 2019 34% · 2020 28% · 2021 24% · 2022 34% · 2023 33% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
38% of ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 63% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION draws 55% of its grant income from funders outside California, across 12 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.7M arriving through sponsors registered in 9 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION holds deeper cash reserves than three-quarters of the 679 education nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 679 education nonprofits over $100M, FY2025
Government funding ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $8.6M on record.
- Department of Education$8.6M
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In California
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
85% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 3 related entities
- Launchpad Development Company · exempt
- Rocketship Education Wisconsin · exempt
- Rocketship Education DC Public · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION?
- ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION (California) receives grants from 46 organizations whose IRS filings report $32,715,971 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($6,750,200). 29 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION have?
- IRS filings report 46 organizations giving $32,715,971 in grants to ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION, 29 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $6,750,200 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like ROCKETSHIP EDUCATION find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in California. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 46 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing